One Sentence Challenge #1: A Decrepit Playground

Foremost, I’d like to thank E. Darby Harrington at Orienting Details for inspiring this idea. I ran into her 15th iteration of the challenge and it inspired me to make this post. Please check out her site and show her content some love.

The point of a one sentence challenge is write the most perfectly written sentence that you are able. It is a challenge in brevity, clarity, and artistry. I also wanted you guys, my wonderful audience, to participate which is why every One Sentence Challenge post will have a prompt after it. As you can see from the title, the prompt for this week is A Decrepit Playground.

It took me about 11 minutes to get to the point that I was satisfied with this sentence, and I hope that it shows. I will show you each iteration that I went though below.

1st attempt: Mycelium mushroomed through the wood chips, which children once ran and skipped through, and a fine dirt marred the swings and slides.

2nd attempt: A mucous-like sludge marred the swings and the swings and all the playthings, and mycelium mushroomed through the wood chips.

3rd attempt: Crusted Sludge marred the swings, slides and all playthings, and mycelium mushroomed through the wood chips.

Final attempt: Stiffend sludge marred swings, slides, and playthings, and mycelium mushroomed through the wood chips.

I hope you enjoyed my one sentence and the journey to become what I thought was the best version of itself. Please leave a comment below with the best sentence you can make with the prompt A Decrepit Playground.

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10 thoughts on “One Sentence Challenge #1: A Decrepit Playground”

The place reeked of neglect and dilapidation with its rickety swings that painfully creaked like they have forgotten how to bear the weight, the rough, rusty metal that seemed to leave its odour and the echos of laughter that must have rang in the air once upon a time and now seemed like a long forgotten memory.

Well done, Austin! And thank you for the shout out for Orienting Details. I like your twist on the challenge, asking for feedback and having a prompt for participation. A goal of my sentence challenge is to try to tell a story in the sentence. So, here goes…I’ll join in the decrepit playground fun:

She could hear the laughter of children she once knew as she ran her hand along the broken, faded swing-set.